First one back

I'm putting a disclaimer in already as I type this "race report".  I am drunk on allergy and cold medicine.  I will have typos, run on sentences, and probably not make sense in some statements.  I managed to come down with cold and allergy symptoms the day before I race, and it's escalated a bit since yesterday.  With that in mind I will keep this short to spare you the grammatical agony. :-)

Yesterday was a big day in my road back to racing.  It's been over 1.5 years since I race a half Ironman as a professional, and during those 16 months I've encountered every emotion possible.  But I did it, and I got the benchmark I needed to know where I'm at and where I need to go.

The day started out beautiful and the chop on the bay was actually not too bad.  At least in my eyes.  A lot of others where definitely bitching and complaining about how bad it was, but it was no where near what the water looked like 24 hrs prior.  I had a solid swim, and stayed tucked right behind two strong swimmers (Joanna and Pip).  I was quite content in this position and just having a ball.  Honestly, it was the first time in years that I did a swim and enjoyed it.  Yep, others where bitching....I was giddy. 

I fumbled quite a bit in transition, acting like a novice and forgetting that I still had stuff balanced on my bike as I pulled out.  Not the picture of a fast transition, but I headed out on to the bike in 4th place.  I felt really good, and very strong and managed to pull myself into 3rd place after a bit.  I was loving the new bike position on my Felt and even managed to smile quite often.  Yes, me who tends to not be the smiley face racer was smiling!  Sam Mcglone came by right before the turn around but I was still feeling quite strong.  I had anticipated a tailwind once I would be heading east, but non the less I never really felt one.  After about 2 miles my legs just stopped and quietly sputtered out, "Uhm, excuse me but we are done now.  Yep, uhm...we're not really feeling it anymore and would like to stop, so if you could please slow down.  Thanks!"  WTF?  How did I just go from feeling like a rock star to feeling like a puddle of mud.  I dunno, but that's what happened.  I got passed by quite a few women during that 2nd half of the bike and my legs would not pick it back up.

I got into transition and racked my bike, had a little talk with those two stumps down there and told them to put their big girl panties on and run!  So that's what they did, they tried to run.  Although it was still with some rebellion, but eventually the two gave up arguing with me and finally opened up a nice pace.  Too bad it wasn't until about 8 miles into the race.  Nice, nice to come around now guys!  But hey, I can't be too upset with them cause they have been through a lot over the last year. 

I managed to finish out the top 10 at the Lonestar 70.3 National Pro Championships, and again it was the first one back.  It was a shock to me to finish that far back from the front of the group, but in reality it's a huge step forward from where I've come.  I got the feedback I needed (Yes, yes legs...your protesting and complaining was heard and validated and I will take all into account for the next block of training!  You're not getting out of anything though!) and plan to build on it.  I'm anxious to bring my fitness up and looking forward to the next few races. 

Great job to the Texas Iron athletes who raced at the Lonestar Tri weekend, especially my hubby Jamie Cleveland who won the overall male Olympic distance race the day before.  See, even us old farts can still race fast and he's proving it!

Cheers, and see ya'll at the next one.
Fish